The Ghost with the Mouth
by Vague Apparitions
Summary: Response to Hellbreaker's "Ghostpool" challenge. After "Phantom Planet," Danny mysteriously disappears. Two months later, he returns, haggard and possibly insane. Read and review, please.
1. Chapter 1

**Obligatory Disclaimer: I own nothing. Plot idea belongs to Hellbreaker. Characters and setting belong to Butch Hartman.**

**Author's Notes: **This is a response to (and my interpretation of) Hellbreaker's challenge, "Ghostpool." It sounded interesting, so I'm going to give it a shot. Hellbreaker, if I mutilate it, please don't kill me.

This is (probably) going to be very short. Likewise, each chapter will (probably) be short.

Before we start, and before anyone asks. . .

**Yes**, I am continuing "Deadly Things."  
><strong>Yes<strong>, I am continuing "Steam Machine."  
><strong>Yes<strong>, I am continuing "The New Girl: A Parody."  
><strong>Yes<strong>, I am continuing "Apprentice." (Or maybe it'll finished by the time I post this. I'm only posting three chapters of it; it may very well be up by now.)  
><strong>Yes<strong>, I am going to keep posting one-shots.

Just wanted to get that out of the way, guys. Anyway, enjoy!

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><p><strong>The Ghost with the Mouth<strong>  
><strong>Chapter One<strong>

"These aren't necessary," Maddie mumbled, flyer in-hand. She felt defeated and, at the moment, very small. It was a feeling that she wasn't used to, and she didn't like it one bit. "Everyone knows that he's gone. He's all over the news in every country. What are these flyers going to do?"

The flyers felt redundant. Everyone knew who Danny was, that he had disappeared, and they knew to look for him. It was their civic duty; after all, he'd saved each and every one of them. Now, they had to somehow return the favour. But the flyers also felt obligatory. Maddie and Jack had made them, and they were hanging up the information people already had known for a month.

Maddie felt like kicking the stack of flyers at her feet, sending the photos of her son and the words "Have You Seen Me?" scattering everywhere. She felt like screaming and crying. She felt like laying in his room, surrounded by his things, and pretending that he was still there. Most of all, she felt like scouring every inch of the Ghost Zone, which was exactly what she would do once she finished wasting her time with the damn flyers. She and Jack could be actively searching for Danny, and, instead, they were sticking pieces of paper everywhere.

"We have to hang 'em," Jack said. "Maybe it'll help."

_He'll come home_, Maddie thought to herself for the hundreth time as she tacked a flyer to a telephone pole, _but it won't happen because of these._

One month later, Danny did exactly that. He showed up at the front door, looking just like anyone who spent two months on the street would look. He was tired, thin, and dirty, wearing his beaten-up jumpsuit. And he didn't seem to mind. In fact, he didn't seem to mind anything at all. His family greeted him with hugs and kisses and questions – and he was apathetic to all of them. He had no answers or explanations. He waited until everything was silent, until he was no longer being kissed or hugged or interrogated, to clear his throat and say, simply:

"Hello. I am the Ghost with the Mouth, and I am here to let you know that we don't exist."


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Notes: **I'm back. . .

Thanks to the reviewers.

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><p><strong>The Ghost with the Mouth<strong>  
><strong>Chapter Two<strong>

"Danny? What are you talking about?" Maddie asked, utterly shocked. The boy in front of her was definitely her son, albeit in ghost form, and he definitely existed. She wondered if, maybe, he was just disoriented from his ordeal.

"I'm not Danny," said Danny, entirely serious and entirely composed. "I'm the Ghost with the Mouth. I'm here to tell you that we don't exist."

"Of course you exist, Danny boy! I see you right here!" Jack said. "Maybe some fudge'll bring you back to your senses. Always works for me."

"We don't. None of this does," Danny said, "especially me. We're all just imagined."

"Alright, Ghost with the Mouth," Jazz said in a somewhat-patronizing way. "Why don't you go lay down? Imaginary or not, you look very tired."

Danny, or the Ghost with the Mouth, stared at her for a moment, vacantly. Without a word, he then went to the couch, changed into his human form, and fell asleep within a few minutes. When she was sure that the boy was sound asleep, Maddie crept over to him and plucked a hair from his head. He didn't stir. "DNA," she mouthed, and Jack nodded. Maddie pecked Danny, or the Ghost with the Mouth, on the forehead, and she and her husband went down to the lab. Meanwhile, Jazz went upstairs to consult her psychology books.

Roughly two hours later, Danny, or the Ghost with the Mouth, woke up. He laid on the couch for a few minutes, looking about the room, and sat up. He then reached over to a nearby lamp and took a swipe at it, sending it to the floor with a crash.

"What was that?" Maddie called out from the kitchen.

Danny, ignoring her, just stared, vacantly, at the scattered pieces of the lamp. He picked up a shard and seemed to inspect it for a moment, looking at it from various angles and running his fingers along the edges. Then, he took a particularly sharp edge and ran it, quickly and firmly, along his palm.

"Danny? What was that?" Maddie called again. She walked to the living room, saying, "I heard something cra- Oh my God, Danny, what did you do? Jack, get me the first aid kit and the dustpan!"

"I felt nothing," Danny said, "because I am enlightened. I don't exist. This cut? This cut doesn't exist. There is no pain."

"Stop talking like that," Maddie said.

"The lamp doesn't exist," Danny continued. "The couch doesn't exist. This house doesn't exist. This town doesn't exist."

"Danny. Enough."

"_You_ don't exist. None of us do."

"Danny, stop this _right now_!"

"I am the Ghost with the Mouth, and I am here to tell you that we don't exist. We are fictional characters thought up by a god called Butch. I know this. My purpose is to enlighten."

"Go upstairs, to your room," Maddie said, on the verge of tears. "I don't care who you are, or if you don't exist. Just go upstairs. _Now_."

Danny, or the Ghost with the Mouth, complied. He went upstairs, to his room, and laid on the bed, staring at the ceiling – which didn't really exist. Downstairs, Maddie sat on the couch and tried very hard not to cry.

"What was all of that about, Mads?" Jack asked, bringing her the dustpan and the first aid kit.

"I think he's lost it," Maddie said, starting to break down. "He's. . . He's _not sane_."

"Or not Danny," Jack suggested.

Maddie sniffed and looked at him. "Did the results of the DNA testing come back?"

"Not yet," Jack said, reaching down to clean up the broken lamp himself. "But he might not be our Danny. Could be some ghost."

"Jack, our Danny_ is_ a ghost."

"Right," Jack admitted, embarassed that he forgot. "Maybe that Danny's not _our_ ghost."

"I don't know," Maddie said, "if I want him to be our Danny or not."


End file.
